<head><style>body{font-family: Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;background-color: #ffffff;color: black;}</style></head><body id="compText">Hello Everyone,     We were able to make a weekend trip to the park.  On our drive up, we saw 2 swans a mile or 2 before the Osborne Bridge.   I also saw one in the Firehole River upstream from Biscuit Basin later in the weekend.   A "pool" across from the gas station & Lower Hams was surrounded by a flock of robins eating something around the edge.  Whiskey Flats is a lake again.  We saw one red bison baby with a herd just past Madison Junction on our way to Norris.   (I actually had seen one opening weekend along the Madison, too.)     Saturday morning after Grand I saw West Triplet bubbling and in overflow.   Within a minute, it began thumping and then started at 1014.  The duration was only about 6 minutes.   On the Hill, Plume had some standing water and was making a sizzling noise.   Grotto was in marathon a good part of the day.     Of course we were well into Grand's window when Beehive's Indicator started.   Most of the gazers and many of the visitors were able to make it to Geyser Hill, but I stayed near Grand.  I watched Beehive from the Liberty Pool area with a little girl from Germany.   Her English was excellent, and I helped her hear Beehive while we watched it erupt.  She told me that she had seen 3 bears earlier that day.  I told her that I hadn't seen them because I was there in the basin, so she said, "All you have to do is drive down the road, and you'll see them!"  Ahh, the simplicity of life when you are three!     I spent time Sunday afternoon and a good part of the day Monday at Steamboat.   Overall, I can say that I have never seen the runoff as strong as I saw it this weekend.  I saw some jetting from both the North and the South Vents.  I also heard some different sounds - during the two strongest minors on Sunday, there was a deep rumble that I have never heard before.  I also heard an occasional pressurized steam sound from near the South Vent area as well as something that I would call roaring.  Part of that may be because the wind was blowing toward me much of the time, but...  The strong minors Sunday coincided with the first peak after the dip on the YVO graph.      http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/yellowstone/yellowstone_monitoring_33.html  The percentage of concerted minors during that time was only about 50%.  On Monday morning, though, the percentages that I got were in the 80s.   By afternoon, it had dropped to about 66%, but the runoff increased.   The graph shows another peak a couple of hours after I left. I hope to see you in the park this year! Polly Panos </body>